Sam Clemens and his family wandered about Europe from June of 1891 to May of 1895, seeking cures for their aches and pains; schooling for their children; and some relaxation. Sam was in rather dire financial straits but it was during this period that he became acquainted with Henry Huddleston Rogers, who along with his secretary, put Sam back on the road to financial stability. This effort required Sam take several trips across the Atlantic while his family remain in Europe.
June 6 Saturday – At 5 a.m. the Clemenses sailed from New York for France on the Gascoigne [June 3 to Moffett]. The family would not return for more than eight years and would never again live in Hartford. Powers writes that Webster & Co. owed Sam $74,087.35 for his cumulative investments in the company at the time the family left [MT A Life 543].
Check # Payee Amount [Notes]
June 7 Sunday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry:
7th. Glassy sea — no wind — everybody on deck — overcoats not needed….Delicious breakfasts, 12.30. Lie abed till 10.30: they bring you a cup of coffee & a biscuit about 8.30 if you want it — & you do [3: 639].
Mrs. Helen Bancroft, “daughter of an old steamboat pilot” wrote from New Orleans to Sam, enclosing a MS and asking Sam to comment as to its fitness for publication [MTP].
June 8 Monday – Clara Clemens’ seventeenth birthday.
At sea, Sam’s notebook entry:
Certainly the sunniest & most beautiful day the Atlantic ever saw. But little sea — though what there is would be seriously felt on a smaller vessel. This one has no motion.
The phosphorescent waves at night are very intense on the black surface….Open fire place & big mantelepiece in great salon — imitation, not real; but a cosy & perfect counterfeit.
June 9 Tuesday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry:
June 9. Brilliant sun, but good deal of sea. Breakfast table rather deserted. It is a good, easy-riding sea-boat. … Blow whistle for noon — can’t hear the bell far…. Seen the whole length of the gangway, people at dinner are diminished to children
A sour deck steward who makes all calls upon him a reluctant & uncomfortable thing [3: 642].
June 10 Wednesday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry:
June 10. Rough sea. Il est defense d’apporter du petit et du vin blanc a la chambre*
Mrs. Franklin advised to get immediately the habits of smoking, drinking, coffee, chewing, snuffing & swearing — then leave them all off for a week & be cured. She had no habits to change when she got sick — therefore was in a helpless & perilous situation [3: 642]. * (It is forbidden to take rolls and white wine to the rooms.)
June 11 Thursday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry:
June 11. The loneliness of a ship at 4 a.m. Saw just one person for an instant flit through the gray of yesterday’s dawn. Very rough — winds singing — first wet deck. Electrics seemed to burn dim. Smoking sty stunk unenduringly. …Susy: “Their gesticulations are so out of proportion to what they are saying.”
Smooth sea again.
Jean, positively comfortable.
Clara, compara[tively comfortable]
Susy, superlatively un[comfortable].
June 12 Friday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry: June 12. Very Smoothe sea. Dr. Martin & the Etchings [3: 643].
In Hartford Franklin G. Whitmore acknowledged the $2,500 check from McClure’s to Frederick J. Hall. Whitmore had searched Sam’s house for pages 184-5 of Sam’s The American Claimant MS but had been unable to find them [MTP].
June 13 Saturday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry: Saturday, 13. Concert [3: 643].
The N.Y. Times, p.8 ran a short article “Friends of Russian Freedom” listing Sam among those who signed a founding document “setting forth its purposes and inviting co-operation.”
Frank W. Cheney for the Boston Monday Evening Club wrote to Sam inviting him to dine on June 18 at his home [MTP]. Note: the Clemenses were in Paris by that date.
June 14 Sunday – The Clemens family, accompanied by Susan Crane and Katy Leary, arrived in Le Havre, France and took rooms in the Hotel Frascati on the beach in Le Havre, outside of town [MTNJ 3: 622]. Note: the eight-day crossing was considerably shorter than prior trips.
June 15 Monday – The family’s plan was to travel to Paris and make a three-day stay there before continuing on to some “French village.” It’s likely they spent one night at Le Havre and left for Paris on this day, given that Sam wrote June 17 from Paris to Frederick J. Hall that they were leaving the city the next day. In Paris they stayed at the Grand Hotel Terminus [June 17 to Hall].
June 16 Tuesday – The Clemens party of seven was in Paris at the Grand Hotel Terminus making plans for the next leg of their sojourn.
June 17 Wednesday – In Paris, France Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall.
A cablegram informs me that my type-setter sale has fallen through [to Mallory Brothers]. Therefore you will now have to modify your instalment system to meet the emergency of a constipated purse; for if you should need to borrow any more money I would not know how or where to raise it.
June 18 Thursday – The Clemens party of seven was still in Paris at the Grand Hotel Terminus.
June 19 Friday – In Paris, France Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder:
Mrs. Coover will send you a type-written story. It is her daughter’s work…I said my judgment would not be valuable, but that…I would write you…[MTP from Swann Galleries catalog, Jan. 28, 1993].
June 20 Saturday – The Clemens party left Paris on or about this day for Geneva, Switzerland. Powers puts their stay in Paris as four days [MT A Life 539]. In his July 10 to Robert Underwood Johnson, Sam wrote,
Just as we were leaving Paris we had a glimpse & a handshake of your wife — & it was a very pleasant way to wind up what had been a very pleasant week [MTP]. Note: the Mrs. was Katharine McMahon Johnson (1856-1924).
June 21 Sunday – The Clemens party without Susy and Clara migrated south to Annecy trying the baths there. The original plans were to spend the rest of the summer in Annecy, some 22 miles from Geneva, at the Haute Savoie [May 20 to Howells].
June 22 Monday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.
June 23 Tuesday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.
June 24 Wednesday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.
John Cowden wrote a very long (and rather dry, rambling, hard to read) letter from Pittsfield, Ill. to Sam about the history of the Mississippi area and experiences there [MTP].
June 25 Thursday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.
June 26 Friday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there. Rodney writes that the Clemens party went to Annecy, “not far over the French border” and stayed a week at a spa there, “convinced that the baths were not restorative” [134]. Note: the chronology for this week based on Rodney.
June 27 Saturday – On or about this day, the Clemens party without Susy and Clara continued on to Aix-les-Bains, France, across the Swiss border and a bath since Roman days, where Sam wrote Susy and Clara on June 28. Baedecker’s 1887 travel guide lists the distance as 55&1/2 miles, a 3&1/2 hour trip by train.
June 28 Sunday – Of this period Paine writes, “The Clemens party went to Geneva, then rested for a time at the baths of Aix” [MTB 921]. Kaplan writes, “Clemens and Livy…looking for relief for the rheumatism that now crippled both of them, visited the fashionable watering places, Aix-les-Bains and then Marienbad.” No letters from Sam are extant until June 28. Powers writes, “…they sank into the pungent sulfuric baths every day for five weeks” [MT A Life 539].
June 29 Monday – In Aix-les-Bains, France Sam wrote again to Susy and Clara Clemens in Geneva. The girls had written.
Dear Sweethearts:
Mamma is a great deal more comfortable this p.m. & I am pretty well satisfied with the way the doctor has got the best of the disease. (Ouch!) Notice to stop using my right hand. Your letters are well done & delightful [MTP]. Note: Livy’s heart condition would not have been helped by the baths, though rest from travel may have helped.